Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Baseball Writers have voted outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. and catcher Mike Piazza in to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Griffey will be the first to go in as a Seattle Mariner, and Piazza, only the second to be enshrined as a New York Met.

Ken Griffey Jr. is definitely a player I grew up cheering for. Piazza... well, maybe not. Reading his biography did nothing to help his cause. Of course I don't have an autograph for Griffey, but I do for Piazza. This election gets me another one for my collection in Piazza, but also adds a tricky one to track down in Griffey.

One of the newest members of the Hall of Fame, pitcher Pedro Martinez, apparently does not accept forwarded mail. I sent this request to the Hall, only to get it back in the mail several days later. The upside is that I also sent out 7 other requests to the Hall, and none of them have come back to me as unsuccessful attempts (so far).

Baseball's Hall of Fame has lost another living legend with the recent passing of Monte Irvin. Irvin was a pioneer in professional baseball as one of the first African American players and executives. At the time of his death he was the second-oldest living member of the Hall.

I obtained Irvin's autograph through the mail in 2010, and he was nice enough to sign a blank 3x5 card for me.

I have created this blog to document my quest to obtain an autograph from any inducted member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Most autograph requests will be sent by mail. If you have any questions or comments, please send them my way!

It can take time to hear back from Hall of Fame ballplayers, so this blog will also be used to showcase other baseball autographs in my collection.